with us today, "newsweek"'s howard fineman. msnbc's norah o'donnell, the "atlanta journal constitution"'s cynthia tucker and "time" magazine's michael duffy. first up, labor day is the official kickoff of the fall campaign. what a difference a year makes. this week last year, barack obama spoke to a joint session of congress to try to upgrade his popularity after a very tough august, getting beat up in those health care town halls. >> the time for bickers -- bickering is over. the time for games has passed. now is the time to deliver on health care. chris: that was the night a republican congressman called him a liar. by year's end, the white house was getting pounded for its handling to have cbs day bomber. scott brown won a seat on the republican side in january. but on the positive side, the economy seemed to be getting better, even fit seemed drearp. >> because of the bold, swift and appropriate action we took we can stand here today and say we prevented another depression. the economy that was shrinking by 6% a year ago is